Category Archives: Recipes
Madeira, Portual – the east coast and the mountains
MOUNTAINS
We have booked a group hike to Pico Areiro in the hope to hipe the stirway to heavens. We begin with a long hike to the top. We go by beautiful views.
We finally make it to the top and the beginning of stairway to heavens to almighty winds that closes down the Stairway to heaven path. While it is disappointing, we could not imagine hiking in those conditions.
The amazing levadas: 2200 km of levadas were built by hand over 100 years to irrigate this while island from the mountains. Very forward thinking. This is what created this amazing agriculture here.
EAST AND SOUTHEAST
The next day we join our small jeep tour to visit the east coast. We are paired with a couple from France near Versailles – he is italian and she is vietnamese. Both speak French but not english so I am the interpretor for this tour 🙂
Stunning view of the Nun’s Valley – remote village with little access to anything.
Santana, Faial and the baskets hike – gorgeous views. We also hike one of the amazing levadas: 2200 km of levadas were built by hand over 100 years to irrigate this while island from the mountains. Very forward thinking. This is what created this amazing agriculture here.
Miradour San Lorenzo – beautiful cliffs and rock formation. Why are people risking their lives for a photo??
And just like that we are off to the Algarve!
Hua Hin – the south of Thailand
We arrive in Hua Hin via a large coach bus with the rest of the group and settle in at the G Hotel near the heart of the city and steps to the beautiful beach on the Bay of Thai.
We take a tuk tuk to discover the city and finish at a great local Thai restaurant on the water. Beautiful!
We joined our tour guide and his family on the Hilton rooftop bar in the heart of the city – amazing view.
Now on to golf!
We have our first round at Majesty Golf course Where we get acquainted with our personal caddy. That is quite an experience!
We learn that all caddies are women and most don’t actually play golf. They are trained to read the greens by comparing to where the water pools on the rice fields. They are bang on “up and down madam”, “many many downhill madam”….how will I ever go back to reading my own greens!
We wonder in the evening to the night market with Steve, Heather, Chris and Trent….lots of great food and clothes!
Heather orders interesting looking prawns and the first of MANY papaya salad!
The next day, we are on the golf course, playing at Springfield Royal Golf Course
We go for a Thai massage near the Hilton and stop at a restaurant on the water. On the beach, a few stray dogs are playing in the water and one of the horse for hire is stretching its legs.
The evening we join the group at a giant food court complete with live Thai music.
The boys find a giant beer keg that they deliver to our table.
I find skewers for 10Baht ($0.40) and buy a bunch. Tim orders the hot pot with all kinds of meat and cabbage to the delight of Chuck and Steve.
After dinner, we join a small group at the Anantara beach resort on the beach for a night cap.
We enjoy a free day on Sunday and Chuck found other golf enthusiasts to go to a bar to watch the NFL in the morning.
Later on Chuck and I decide to take a tuk tuk to Monkey mountain and we hiked to the top.
We also visit the beach on the other side which is beautiful!
In the evening we go to the “best” seafood restaurant in town called Chaolay Seafood, overlooking the ocean and I order my first grilled sea bass
The next day we are off to Banyan Golf Course.
Banyan Golf course
In the evening we walk from the hotel towards the bar district with our new friend Trent and Chris. We come across a bar/restaurant where a pool tournament is underway. Lots of Scandinavian men and a few Thai women.
One of the them has a Thai money. Chris is in love!
The next day is our last golf day in Hua Hin – Black Mountain golf resort.
Another
Our trip begins in Bangkok
We start our golf tour in Thailand with a few days in Bangkok and meet the golf group from Kelowna and Heather and Steve. We are 19 golfing enthusiasts on our first visit to Thailand.
We are staying at the Novotel with a fantastic infinity pool
We experience local Thai restaurants. Looks like everything is deep fried! Must find vegetable.
We decide to go on a visit to the Grand Palace and the Emerald temple the next day. Our guide is excellent and we learn a lot about the royal family and their 10th king currently in power. There is so much wealth!We notice that there are 7Eleven everywhere and she tells us that the royal family has a stake in it which is why…
We are able to go into the temple to see the emerald Buddha (which is really Jade). He gets dressed by the king for each season! Pictures can only be snapped from outside.
Our guide brings Heather and I am orchid which she fashions into a flower for us to go make an offering to Buddha and make a wish!
We walk by the Grand Palace as King #10 does not allow anyone inside the buildings.
We continue our day with a long tail boat adventure on the river and one canal, the water is quite dirty and there is a huge gap between the poor decrepit houses and the big newly built bouses. Still prices are very low.
Heather and I try a Thai foot massage at a place near the hotel. It was fabulous! Now we want one every day. Of course beautiful drink afterwards!
In the evening, we enjoy a nice meal and take a tuk tuk home. The driver decided to go full out rock and roll on Steve and Chuck’s urging. We could have easily died! Those drivers are crazy!
Lamb Tagine
I have been experimenting with my new tagine and love the mix of spice and the tenderness of the meat when cooked in it.
This is one of my favourite!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lamb cubed, cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon, salt, garlic powder, ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin, ground ginger, ground cardamom. Turmeric
- 1/4 cayenne pepper
- Pinch of ground cloves and saffron
- 2 medium onions cut in 1-inch cubes
- 5 carrots, cut into fourth, then sliced lengthwise into thin strips
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice and zest of half lemon if you have one
- 2 cups broth
- 1 tbsp tomate paste
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp corn starch (optional) + 1 tbsp water
Steps
6 to 8 hours before cooking or overnight, add the lamb to a plastic bag or a large container, mix 2 tbsp of olive oil and coat the lamb well.
Add all spices up to saffron in a small bowl, mix well. Add to the lamb. Coat well and refrigerate.
When ready to cook, heat oil in your tagine on stove top or in a cast iron pan and brown the lamb in batches.
Remove from the pan then add carrots, onions, ginger and garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Return the lamb to the tagine and add lemon juice and zest, chicken broth, tomate paste and honey.
Bring to boil, then reduce to low. Cover and place in oven at 370C for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Serve with couscous.
Grand Canyon – Phoenix + Utah
Finally we arrive in Phoenix for one of our 30th anniversary trip.
After an uneventful trip and 3 hours drive to check in to our hotel in Tusayan. We are staying at the Holliday Inn in town as most of the places were sold out even though we were booking months in advance. Turned out to be pleasantly surprised with incredibly friendly staff, very large suite with a separate living room which works great for us as I am an early riser, and great breakfast! We decide to drive the 15 minutes to the Grand Canyon village and Mather’s point. What an amazing scenery that opens up to us! Truly spectacular and we know there are no pictures that will give it justice!
We make our plans for our hikes the next days and go back for a Mexican dinner in a very cute restaurant called Plaza Bonita. Portions are extravagant but my first organic margarita with agave syrup is excellent!
On day 2, we make our way very early to the South Kaibab trailhead full of energy. Very quickly as we descend though, we realize that the trail is narrow and the height will make this a nightmare for Chuck.
We go back up and decide to hike a bit more of the rim trail on our way to Bright Angel Trail. Without realizing, we are piling up the steps and the kilometres! Amazing how everything is well maintained….no garbage on the ground and anything in back condition. The paved Rim trail is incredibly scenic.
After restocking in water, we make our way to Bright Angel trail head and start the descent. We are warned that it takes an hour to get to the 1.5 mile resthouse and 2 hours to go back and that it is steep all the way but it gets very steep at certain points. We resolve to take our time and make it there.
The view and scenery is absolutely fantastic. Hard to capture in photos or describe with words. This is one that must be witnessed in person!
We make it at our destination in one hour and feel good but are worried about the hike back so we decide not to continue to mike 3.
Although very tough on and off, we realize that our pace going up is the same – we make it in one hour as well. We could have continued on…. A project for another time. Once back at the top, we go to the geology museum and take stock of the amount of dust on our legs and shoes. Incredible!
We catch the Grand Canyon IMAX movie in town and back at our hotel after dinner early.
Ready for tomorrow’s move to our « glamping » in Utah.
The road to Utah is awesome and we take our time stopping multiple times.
First we stop at a scenic overlook called Liban Point, just west of Navajo Point. What a view! This is our favorite view of the Grand Canyon – we can see a large section of the Colorado river as well as the famous rapids that drop 3 buildings! Luckily, there is a gate for Chuck 🤣 Pictures again do not do it justice but here we go.
Then we stop at the desert watchtower – again the canyon is beautiful from different spot.
As we are driving along 89, we see a variety of cliffs ranging in color from yellow to deep orange. We feel that we are on a different planet! We make a stop at Marble Canyon – vermillion cliffs. This is different as we can see the cliffs from below and the play of light shows different Shades of colour. We can see why this is considered one of the most beautiful highway in the world!
The Under the Canvas luxury tent campground is exactly as we would have expected! The interior of the tent is spacious and well appointed and our view to the Grand Staircase from our porch is fabulous. The dining hall with its outdoor patio is also lovely. We go for a short hike on the property to their small slot canyon and enjoy a very informative talk from geologist Gary in the evening. He shares so much information about the “making” of the Grand Canyon but also shares about the water crisis they are currently experiencing. From an average of 6 inches of water a year, they were down to under 1 inch last year. Their local lake Powell created by the dam is down to 27% of its historique high, threatening their very water supply and the whole Colorado river water level. Astonishing that not much is being done to address this overconsumption of water.
Today is the day for the antelope canyon – the very reason we drove up here.
We rise early and have a lovely breakfast on the patio chatting with two ladies from Bahamas. We learn about their handling of Covid and the crazy patriarchal society that does not give ownership to children of a Bahamian woman born in Bahama unless the father is Bahamian – crazy! She shares the best islands to visit and we take extensive notes!
Next we drive to the Navajo tour check in and go on a jeep with our guide Abraham to the entrance of the canyon.
This is beyond beautiful – words can not describe it. The play of light on these orange/pink walls, the carving made over millions of years by the water brought through to this day by flash flooding in the summer – amazing! This is all embellished by the great narration of our guide, sharing history, legends and the best photos spots. He takes the best photos for us and simply makes this tour amazing!
We then go to Horseshoe bend trail and hanging garden trail. Two nearby short trails with a great view of a rock formation peaking from the Colorado river at the first one and some maidenhair fern popping from the walls of a cliffs at a most unexpected spots at the second. Again we walk on the trail to take us there surrounded by a landscape reminiscing of the moon! Desert and cliffs as far as the eye can see. We are also reminded of a trail we did in Newfoundland.
Off for lunch to a super cute roadhouse called Grand Canyon brewery in Page. An absolute must! The decor and atmosphere are really neat and I can not resist sending mathew pictures of some of the menu items. Cheese curds (our favorite) are fried and breaded 😳….and some variation of Mac and cheese.
We spend the rest of the day at the campground surrounded by the very loud noise of a wind storm – relaxing while reading our books and listening to lovely live music! Off to Sedona tomorrow.
Vegan scramble eggs breakfast
I experimented with tofu to recreate scramble eggs and I think this recipe really nails it. Even in the appearance 🙂
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp of grape seed oil
- I package of soft tofu (you can use firm but I like this consistance)
- 1 tsp of curry powder
- 1tsp of garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp of turmeric (optional)
- 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp of oat milk
Heat the oil in a frying pan and put the block of tofu in it. Use a fork to literally mash it in the consistence you would like.
Add all the other ingredients except the milk and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the milk and heat for 1 minute.
That’s it. Ready to serve!!
Sautéed vegetables.
I serve this with some sautéed vegetable which I prepare before the tofu. I used this but you can use any soft vegetable you like. (Avoid using root vegetable as they will take longer to cook).
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/3 jalapeño
- 1 zucchini
- 5 large oyster mushroom
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 tsp of seasoned salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
Diced all the ingredients.
Place the first 3 ingredients in a frying pan with a bit of oil and sautéed for a minute. Add the rest of the ingredients and let them sweat for a few minutes. Add a bit of water of broth to deglaze the pan and capture all the good flavour. Cook for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning. Ready!!
Crispy Mushroom and Kale Fried Rice.
This is a quick and easy one-pot meal that is sure to please everyone. Can also be serve as a side dish or part of a multi-course Asian dinner extravaganza!!
This recipe will serve 3 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side dish.
Cook 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of vegetable broth.
Meanwhile prepare the vegetable mixture in a large wok or a large pan.
Heat the wok to high heat and add 1 1/2 tbsp of sesame, peanut or grape seed oil. Then add the following ingredients:
- 1 inch piece of ginger chopped
- I garlic clove minced
- 1 large scallion chopped
- 1/2 medium size cooking onion diced
Cook for a few minutes or just until the fragrances are released.
Add the following ingredients:
- 10 cremini or Shittake (stems removed) mushroom sliced
- 6 large leaves of lacinato kale chopped
- 1/2 jalapeño chopped
- 1 medium red or green bell pepper diced
- 1 medium brocoli head roughly chopped (optional)
Fry for a few minutes or until the kale becomes crispy.
Add 2 tbsp of oil, stir and add the cooked basmati or brown rice.
Add
- 1 1/2 tbsp of hoisin sauce
- 2 1/2 tbsp of soya sauce
- 2 green onions chopped
Mix well and heat for 1-2 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve in big communal bowl. Enjoy!
Creamy avocado dressing
This is quickly coming one of my favorite recipe. The dressing is now a staple at our house and I have used it with several different salads. I am suggesting it for a brocoli salad which was the original.
This is loosely based on a receive from our weekly delivery from Mama Earth
Avocado Dressing
- 1 avocado ripen
- 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp of garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper
- 1/2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
- 1/8 cup of lemon juice
Put all ingredients in a small blender or a food processor and blend until you achieve a creamy consistence.
For the salad, here is a suggestion but I have one used this dressing with several different combinations. It is all about the dressing!!
- I broccoli head and 1/2 cauliflower head cut in floret
- 1/4 red onion chopped
- 2 tbsp of sunflower seeds to taste
- 1/2 shelled edamame or fresh snow peas (optional)
- 1 apple diced (optional, those who know my husband will know that it is not allowed at our house 😂)
Everything goes in a bowl. Mix it up and serve.
Ratatouille
One of my favorite recipe when the huge zucchini start showing up in our garden. A hearty meal in itself that can also be served on pasta with cheese on top for a ratatouille au gratin!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant cut in cubes 1 inch size.
- 1 extra large zucchini or 2 medium ones cut in cubes same size.
- 1 red pepper diced
- 1/2 long hot pepper diced
- 2-3 cooking onions diced
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 12 fresh plum tomatoes diced up or a can a diced tomatoes (San Marzano if available).
- 2 tbsp of tomato paste.
- 3-4 tbsp of fresh basil (one branch from your garden) chopped
- 1-2 tbsp of fresh thyme chopped
- Olive oil
The order in this recipe is important.
In a Large Dutch oven, follow these steps and do not wipe the pot between each steps.
1- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil, place the eggplant in the pan and season with 1/2 tsp of salt. Cook for about 10-12 minutes (still all denté). Remove from the pot and set aside.
2- Keep the remaining oil and add one more tbsp. Add the zucchini and cook for 3 minutes or until soft but still al dente. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, remove from the pot and set aside in a separate bowl.
3- Add another tbsp of oil and add the onions and peppers cooking for 2-3 minutes, then the garlic cooking for another minute.
4- Add the tomatoes, thyme and tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes break down.
5- Add the eggplant back to the pot and simmer for 10 minutes or until the eggplant is soft. Add the zucchini and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the basil and simmer for another minute et Voilà!
This dish is excellent the next day and freezes very well.
“No-beef” and Barley Soup
Ingredients
Batch 1:
- 2 shallots or 1 Spanish onion diced.
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 large carrots diced
- 3 branches of celery diced
- 2 cups frozen green beans
Batch 2
- 2 cups homemade tomato sauce or a can of diced tomatoes
- 8 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 cup of barley
- 2 tbsp of fresh parsley or 2 tsp of dried parsley
- 2 tsp of dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp of black pepper
- 1 tbsp of Himalayan salt
Batch 3
- 2 cups of frozen green peas
- 1 small can of black beans and white kidney beans (398 ml)
Instructions
In a large Dutch oven or saucepan, put a few tbsp of vegetable broth with the onions and the garlic. Cook for 5 minutes watching to ensure there is still some liquid, otherwise add some as needed. Add the remainder of the ingredients from Batch 1. Cook for another 5 minutes continuing to ensure that there is liquid at the bottom of the pan.
Add ingredients from batch 2 and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until the carrots and the barley are cooked.
Add the ingredients from batch 3 and continue simmering for 5 minutes.
Martine's food and places 